Isn’t there a thing with him not travelling or flying or sth or did I make that up
Herrera is pretty good, I was so happy when Mourinho stopped using him. He’d instantly be better than half our midfield options.
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Herrera would instantly be our best midfielder but he’s off to PSG
That’s probably true, but what other club could it be said that Herrera going there would make him their best midfielder?
It just shows how poor our midfield is and the lack of quality.
I reckon Guendouzi can become our best midfielder. He has the engine for it. He just has to run and run and run with positional awareness. This is what we’ve lacked in all our defeats in the PL- a clear absence of a midfield.
If we can get just one good season out of Guendouzi where he has a (dare I say it) Vieira like commanding presence in the midfield, then we can sell him for the inevitable big money price tag that he’ll attract.
We’ve just got to be sure not to replace a Vieira with a Fabregas this time, though 
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Comparing Guendouzi who’s afraid to get a foot in to Vieira? Fabregas wasn’t scared to get a foot in either. Viera was also far better technically than Guendouzi can dream of being.
And for the record Cesc was our best ever midfielder, not Vieira and it’s not particularly close.
I’d pick Vieira over Fabregas all day. He was a near complete midfielder.
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Yeah as much as I loved Fabregas I’d probably take the complete package of prime PV4 also.
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Never seen peak PV at all just seen his last two seasons with us but seen Fabregas whole Arsenal career. Through my teenage years he was my favourite player along with Henry but even I would pick PV over Fabregas. He’s our best midfielder ever for me
This is a strange bias
Vieira and Petit were huge for us. If you ever got to see Vieira play you’d know - also one of the few midfielders that Utd feared !!
Vieira any day of the week. Man, how I wish we had someone like that in our team now. He’d whip that midfield into shape! Best central midfielder in the world on his day.
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I saw Vieira at Highbury a few times but I saw him at Old Trafford, when we beat spurs in the FA Cup, and because the seats we were were high, you could see how much ground he covered and the control he had over the game.
It was like watching an adult playing in a kids match.
Both he and Adams have been our best captain and, along with Makelele, the best DM or b2b midfielders in the PL, and possibly Europe.
Vieira and Petit were the best defensive midfield partnership I’ve seen.
Cesc was a great player for us but he was playing alongside a lot of players that weren’t at his level.
Vieira was in a team full of world class players, which obviously helped him, but I still think he was the better and more influential player both for us and France.
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I’m with @arsenescoatmaker on this one. (Apart from the strange Guendouzi hate, the man is a don)
But Cesc > Vieira and it showed when we played Juve in 2006.
Cesc always had a bunch of shitters next to him and his team were never as good as the Vieira teams so he is looked down upon more I guess.
His best partner in the end at Arsenal turned out to be Flamini 
Vieira was a beast box to box but got dominated in Europe and Vs Man United more often than not.
Can’t judge it on one game, mate. If that was the case, Phil Neville is better than Vieira based on the game we had at Old Trafford in late 2002.
Fabregas changed the way we played. It was slower and the opposition loved playing against us
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Tbf that’s my point. My guy Cesc would have never allowed himself to be done by Phil Neville ffs.
I remember a game in 2002( I think) , I was listening on Sunday sportsworld on the BBC and we played Villa at Highbury, we trailed 0-2 at HT, if not for PV4 it would have been 4 or 5, we ended up winning 3-2.
Brilliant game, that. Can remember John Gregory saying in his post match interview that he thought Arsenal would win the league from that point, and we did
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Yeah I was like 15 at the time and never had pay TV until I could afford it myself, so I used get up and listen to Saturday and Sunday sportsworld in the night 
. That was a fantastic match.
I think there’s a strong Invinsibles bias amongst our fan base. I was an Arsenal fan throughout the Vieira Era but consider Fabregas the better player.
Raw PL Stats Fabregas vs Vieira
Games - 350 vs 307
Assists - 111 vs 31
Goals - 50 vs 34
And those stats favour Vieira, in terms of primes because Cesc was a young teen and past his prime for much of his PL life. Where as Vieira only played his prime in the PL
Range of passing - easily Farbegas, short his passes were more incisive and his range and placement and weight of long passes was world class when Vieira’s never were
Vision/Creativity - Fabregas far better at picking players out
Dribbling/Close control/First touch - easily Vieira, incredibly naturally talented
Pace and off the ball movement - clearly Vieira, Cesc isn’t bad but Vieira was top class
Ball winning - Vieira but Cesc was very good before his injuries
Ability to dictate play - Fabregas controlled a midfield in a way Vieira didn’t.
Overall - Fabregas because he has more levels to his game than Vieira.